The state Democratic Party credits its efforts to increase voter participation by just 5% in key areas with the election of Kelly Kautz, Snellville’s first Democratic mayor in 12 years. Kautz returns to liberal control the seat that was wrested away from 32-year Democrat incumbent Emmett Clower by now-State Representative Brett Harrell in 1999.

Email sent to Snellville Democrats on Election Day

The fact that the Dems claim Kautz as their own shouldn’t surprise anybody. While candidate Barbara Bender had no problem acknowledging her alliance with the Republican Party, Kautz insisted on her “independence” and hid behind the non-partisan nature of the Snellville race. Kautz counted as her supporters Mr. Clower, who only abandoned his Democrat affiliation in the face of the Harrell challenge; attorney and former Council member Warren Auld and car dealer Dwight Harrison, both of whose political leanings have always been suspect.

Moreover, those of the decade-long conservative insurgence in Snellville should have seen the writing on the wall. Southern Gwinnett has continued to trend Democratic as blacks, traditionally and inexorably beholden to the Dems, flee the blight and corruption of east DeKalb County for Gwinnett’s better schools and cheaper housing.

Further evidence of the bluing of Snellville is the fact that Republican state legislators essentially abandoned south Gwinnett to the Democrats during the redistricting after the 2010 census. In part to protect its control of Gwinnett and give the GOP inroads into Atlanta, state Republicans have ceded everything south of Hwy. 78, Mountain Park and much of Lilburn to Hank (“Guam may sink”) Johnson’s Fourth Congressional District.

In the State Senate, Snellville has been represented for a decade by Don Balfour, an influential Republican. To protect his own political future, Balfour has drawn for himself a district that takes in a significant portion of conservative southeast Gwinnett including Dacula. Democrat-controlled Senate District 55 will now take in all of Gwinnett south of Hwy. 78 and parts of Grayson and Loganville.

The balance of power in Snellville between Republican and Democrat is at the tipping point and sliding steadily back to blue. Dems apparently recognized that boosting turnout by a fraction could be (and was) the difference between victory and defeat. Republicans, possibly lulled into complacency by the obvious ethical and intellectual superiority of their candidate, failed to defend the seat that they have held for 12 years.

“Our goal is to increase Democratic performance in key areas across the state,” said Chairman Mike Berlon of the Democratic Party of Georgia. “This election showed that we can do that, and that bodes well for our next statewide contest.”Women had an especially impressive night, with first time female mayors taking office in Snellville Kelly Kautz and in Albany,

via Georgia Democrats Energized by Election Results | Georgia Democrats.